A meeting convened by Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran on Thursday decided to set up special committees to formulate draft guidelines for exempting human settlements in Pambavalley, Angelvalley villages in Kottayam district and Thattekad village in Ernakulam district from the buffer zone limits of respective wildlife sanctuaries.
According to the Minister, the committees will gather feedback from locally elected representatives, prepare draft guidelines, and submit them to the government for detailed review before forwarding them to the National Wildlife Board. “The committees will be chaired by the Forest Minister and will include the legislators concerned, ward members from district and block panchayats, as well as the presidents and ward members of the respective grama panchayats.The Chief Wildlife Warden will serve as the convener of the committees,” the Minister said in an official statement on Thursday.
Earlier, the State government had submitted proposals to the Union government and the National Wildlife Board to exclude these areas from the buffer zones of the respective wildlife sanctuaries. Preparing and submitting draft guidelines is part of fully implementing this recommendation.
